Brasília and the “selective modernization”: notes about a metropole interpretation

Abstract

The article seeks to draw parallels between the proposal of the free public ground floor, a fundamental principle in the urban design for Brasilia, and the term "selective modernization", proposed by the sociologist Jessé Souza (2000). According to the author, the Brazilian modernization process was selective and not only promoted the new social classes that differentially appropriated the cultural and economic capital derived from them, it also resulted in a class of individuals without capital of any kind, deprived of the social, moral and social preconditions of citizenship. It is proposed to observe the term in relation to the ideology that gave rise to the new capital, based on new and radical ideas on land ownership, linked to urban design principles, to reflect on the latent structures rooted in the past that resonate in this episode urbanization of the country. For this, in addition to the theoretical propositions, it is used here the idea of the horizontal private condominiums, an allusive image that reveals the conflicts and contradictions that mark the metropolis in the present, with great land and socio-spatial aspect.